The Leviathan

Highway 89, east of McCloud, California, USA

Scouting out locations for an upcoming photography workshop, I made my way toward massive Mount Shasta. An ancient and extinct volcano, the mountain rises more than 14,000 feet above sea level. A number of legends and beliefs are associated with Mt. Shasta, including stories about seven-foot tall creatures - the Lemurians - who live inside the mountain in caves lined with gold.

Some people have claimed the City of Yaktavia exists deep inside the Mount Shasta. The Yaktavians of the Secret Commonwealth of Mount Shasta are the finest makers of bells in the world. Some say thousands of these bells can be heard on occasion along the remote stretches of the highways around the mountain.

On my visits to Mount Shasta I've heard no bells. Once, as I hiked high up the mountain with friends, we heard a weirdly sonorous sound that we agreed must be the wind. Or was it?